I am thinking about transparency over time…these are unconnected thoughts in my head right now:
1. can we read transparency backwards into history?
2. if accountability and transparency are separate or at lease not synonyms is it possible to be a historian of transpsrency?
3. can you have a transparent government in an era pre-internet?
4. thinking back to the keynote…..fish bowl transparency and reasoned transparency…in a post-internet age is reasoned transparency possible.

I think that pre-Internet transparency was possible and more importantly was realized. The federal Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1966 and made significant differences in government transparency. That said, it was so much more difficult to go to a FOIA reading room at a government agency. Often, FOIA requests could take months–or even years–to complete. When the Electronic Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1996, it acknowledged how the Internet is like a steroid that enables bigger and faster dumps of government information. I guess my question is how open does government need to be to be considered transparent?